


The regular level of weird

by mckvch (RaiseYourVoice)



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Canon Universe, M/M, Nightmares, Pre-Relationship, Teasing, Watching Someone Sleep, Worried Merlin, sleepy arthur
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-13
Updated: 2017-07-13
Packaged: 2018-12-01 21:12:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11494845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaiseYourVoice/pseuds/mckvch
Summary: Finally, the young warlock gave up on trying to go back to sleep, pushing the rough material of his thin blanket aside to swing his legs off the bed. HeknewArthur was unharmed and peacefully sleeping in his chambers but Merlin’s subconscious clearly didn’t believe that to be true so he decided that maybe it would help to just make sure the prince was indeed fine.Sneaking out of the room without Gaius waking up was something like second nature to him by now, having done this so many times since his arrival in the castle, but Merlin still breathed a sigh of relief when the door shut as quietly as possible behind him.





	The regular level of weird

**Author's Note:**

> I know I'm _slightly_ late to the fandom but now that I'm finally binge-watching the show, I felt like writing a little something and this piece was sadly the only thing I could come up with for now. I'm still waiting for proper ideas to pop into my head.

Merlin never really had nightmares when he had been a child—certainly less than other the other kids he had known, of that much he was sure—but lately, he was plagued by nightmares pretty frequently. He was haunted by the images of whatever dangerous occurrences he had lived through since becoming Arthur’s servant and the young warlock didn’t even want to think about the amounts of times he had saved the prince’s life by now. 

Sure, Arthur had saved his plenty of times in return but that didn’t exactly help to make Merlin feel any better about it. Them always managing to save each other certainly didn’t stop the prince from actually dying in most of Merlin’s nightmares and he had the sneaking suspicion that the intensity of those nightmares had more to do with his way too strong feeling for the successor to the throne than with the dangers they were facing on an almost daily basis.

It was one of those dreams where Arthur bled out in his arms that had the young warlock jolt awake in a cold sweat, breathlessly gasping the young prince’s name and his shaky fingers clinging to the rough blanket he was tangled up in that had been the blood-drenched shirt clinging to Arthur’s body mere seconds earlier. 

His heart was pounding, chest heaving and eyes burning from the terror this nightmare had induced.

They had been in a fight that day but it hadn’t been nearly as bad as some of the other’s they had already mastered. It had been a pretty close call at only one point during the battle when one of their enemy’s spears would have impaled Arthur if Merlin hadn’t managed to react in the last second and deflected it with his magic. The tip of the spear had nicked the skin of the prince’s neck a little bit but other than that and a few bruises from the rest of the fight they had both come out of it mostly unharmed. 

Still, Merlin’s dreams decided to tell a very different story of the events, probably because the thought of losing Arthur in battle was even more terrifying now, ever since the young warlock had realised his feelings for the prince.

Merlin tried to calm himself down again, curled up on his side with his eyes squeezed shut in order to will himself back to sleep but the images of his nightmares were still flashing in front of his eyes and his heart kept on pounding almost painfully against his ribs, making it impossible to relax again.

Finally, the young warlock gave up on trying to go back to sleep, pushing the rough material of his thin blanket aside to swing his legs off the bed. He  _ knew _ Arthur was unharmed and peacefully sleeping in his chambers but Merlin’s subconscious clearly didn’t believe that to be true so he decided that maybe it would help to just make sure the prince was indeed fine. 

Sneaking out of the room without Gaius waking up was something like second nature to him by now, having done this so many times since his arrival in the castle, but Merlin still breathed a sigh of relief when the door shut as quietly as possible behind him.

The way to Arthur’s chambers was familiar enough by now as well, Merlin could probably walk there with his eyes closed, and it was easy enough for him to sneak into the prince’s room because, yes, this was something he had already done a few times for different reasons as well. 

The young warlock knew he should probably feel weird about sneaking into someone else’s bedroom in the middle of the night like this but he couldn’t find it in himself to feel odd about it anymore. Arthur had caught him a few times when he had been in the room with the sleeping prince before and Merlin had somehow always managed to get out of the situation without much of a problem and Arthur didn’t even seem to think too much of it anyway.

Merlin silently stepped up to Arthur’s bed and now his heart started beating a little faster for a completely different reason than before. 

The prince was fast asleep on his stomach, the blanket tangled around his feet and hip while his naked back was on full display, the pale moonlight highlighting his sleep-mussed, blond hair and giving it an almost golden shimmer. Arthur’s cheek was smushed against one of the many pillows and Merlin couldn’t help but stare at the other’s slightly parted lips for a moment and by now it was nearly impossible to not wonder about how they would feel and taste against his own.

The young warlock slapped his hand against his mouth when a sigh escaped his throat that sounded way too loud in the otherwise completely quiet room. Arthur’s eyelids fluttered a little but he didn’t stir or wake up, it seemed, but Merlin’s relief didn’t last too long …

“What are you doing?” Arthur’s voice sounded groggy and he was more asleep than awake but clearly aware of who was in his room, judging by the tone of his question.

“I’m—I—Sleepwalking?”

“You’re getting weirder with every passing day, Merlin, I swear,” the prince muttered before yawning and he was clearly struggling to stay awake, his eyelids fluttering every time he blinked.

“Sorry.” He wasn’t and they both knew it.

“I”—an intake of air, exhaled in a sigh—”had a nightmare about you and I just...wanted to make sure you’re okay, I guess.”

That caught Arthur’s attention enough for him to be able to open his eyes a little more, confusion and a hint of worry in the hazy blue depths. The prince scrutinised him for a moment before his lips curled into the softest smile Merlin had ever seen on the other’s face.

“I would say this is oddly sweet if it wasn’t for the fact that you snuck into my bedroom in the middle of the night  _ again _ . You being unnecessarily worried about me doesn’t make this any less creepy.”

Merlin was unable to keep a short laugh from bubbling up in his throat and he had actually needed this right now, he realised. He had needed to see Arthur and hear his teasing to properly accept that it had definitely been nothing but a nightmare, the prince was fine and acting like a brat as usual.

“Someday, I will sneak in here and smother you with one of your hundreds of pillows, just you wait!” Merlin commented but his attempt at sounding threatening was ruined by the accidental lightness of his words and the smile on his lips. 

“I’d like to see you try,” Arthur laughed in return before reaching for one of the aforementioned pillows to lazily fling it at the young warlock, missing him by almost a whole foot. “Now, get out of here! If you need someone to hold your hand, ask Gaius.”

Merlin shook his head, laughing, but couldn’t resist picking up the pillow to throw it back at the prince, hitting him straight in the head. Before Arthur was able to do more than making an indignant sound in the back of his throat, the young warlock already turned around and almost bolted out of the room, throwing a “Sleep well,  _ Sire _ ” over his shoulder.

It still took Merlin about an hour to fall asleep again when he was finally back in his bed but this time it wasn’t the memory of the nightmare that was keeping him awake but the image of Arthur’s sleepy, soft smile etched in his mind and causing his heart to lose its rhythm.


End file.
